Get schooled.
In his first year at Penn, Glen Miller visibly upped the program’s recruiting aim from where it had been under Fran Dunphy. Though he ultimately lost out to Stanford for big prize Josh Owens, Miller did bring a number of excellent recruits who project very well at the Ivy League level. Several of them could get major minutes right away as an inexperienced and young Quaker team looks to rebuild after graduating three important veterans this past spring.
Despite taking over at Harvard in April, Tommy Amaker was able to put a quick recruiting stamp on the program by bringing in a JuCo transfer in the spring. This supplemented a trio of high school players who had committed to Frank Sullivan, and all three kept their pledges after the coaching change. The three freshmen all have a shot at immediate minutes this season, though it’s the transfer who has the greatest likelihood of cracking the rotation right away.
Terry Dunn apparently targeted his 2007 recruiting efforts on frontcourt players, and the result was a class heavy on size. While the freshmen as individuals and as a group didn’t get the same attention from national recruiting services as the previous two Dartmouth classes, Dunn mentioned the three freshmen frontcourt players as potential contributors this season in an August feature on the school’s athletics website and another could get a chance to run the point.
Different coaches take very different approaches to non-conference play, and this season’s schedules are no exception. Rather than just looking at names, these are the average Pomeroy ratings of non-conference opponents for each of the Ivy League schools.
Scout.com is reporting Garvin Hunt of the Sagemont Upper School in Florida has committed verbally to Penn. The 6-9, 225-pound center opted for the Quakers over scholarship offers from the likes of Charlotte, Delaware, George Mason, Massachusetts, Richmond, Santa Clara, South Florida, and Wichita State — among others. Hunt averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds as a junior last season. He is the third member of Glen Miller’s balanced 2008 recruiting class to announce a commitment, joining point guard Zack Rosen and wing Rob Belcore.